Mini Books for Christmas Photos and Cards (can I call it a hybrid project?!)

Are you looking for something quick and fun to do with all the Christmas photos and cards you received this year? If you don't want to store them in an envelope or *gasp* throw them away you could make a quick mini book for them. This is my 4th year of making mini books for my Christmas cards/photos and I love it! 

All I had to do was design a simple cover using Gennifer Bursett's Be Joyful mini kit at Pixels & Co. (You could even just use a pretty Christmas card or photo as the cover too). After I printed the cover at Costco I glued it to thin cardboard (just so it's a bit more sturdy), punched holes in the cover and photos/cards and bound it all together with jump rings. I still have a box of ribbon from my paper scrapping days so I added some ribbons too to jazz it up a bit (and to use some ribbons!).

 

For the Christmas letters, I just folded them up and put them in an envelope and clipped the envelope to the jump rings too. It's a really quick project!

Can I even call this a bit of a hybrid project?

For more ideas, here are the books I made for the previous 3 years:

Digi supplies ... not just for scrapbook pages! (Facebook timeline covers perhaps?)

Gorgeous digi supplies ... they're not just for scrapbook pages. I made a quick new timeline cover for my Facebook page last night and thought I'd share it with you. 

And since it's digi ... I made a couple of quick changes and changed it up a bit for my Facebook Design page as wee. FYI, my Facebook design page is Barbara's Digital Designs if you want to come by and "Like" my page.

Materials used:

Wishing Well Creations "This is my Story" kit at Pixels & Co. 

Time for a new Facebook Timeline Cover & Blogger Header

I just realized I haven't changed my Facebook Timeline Cover or my blogger header for a year. A year! It was time for some springy colors! Hello spring! You're out there somewhere, aren't you?!

Credits:

Photography Quotes Wordart Set 2 & Photo Journaling Cards Zen by Jennifer Valencia Photography

Bubbly by Gennifer Bursett

Life 365 Buttons by Karla Dudley

Wondering what to do with all those wonderful Christmas photos & cards you get?

Are you looking for something to do with all those wonderful Christmas photos, cards and letters you get every year? I've got and idea for you! For the last several years I've created a simple book for the cards. I design a cover, adhere it to thin cardboard (I use the cardboard I get back from Costco when I order scrapbook pages), then punch holes in the cover and the cards/photos and bind it all together with jump rings. That's it. Super simple (and kinda cute!), right?

And if you wonder what to do with the Christmas letters you get, I include that in the book too. Those papers are too big and too thin to punch so I fold them up and put them in an envelope, then I punch holes in the bottom of the envelope and include that too.

This is the third year I've done this and I love it. All my cards are together by year and I can easily page through them and look at the photos. It's fun to leave out during the holidays so people can page through it!

Credits:

Rockin' Retro Christmas by Mommyish at Pixels & Co.

2014 Wall Calendar

I thought I'd share with you today some wall calendars I made for my in-laws as a Christmas gift. (I had to hold off posting these until I actually gave them their gifts!). I used a bunch of super fun digi goodness from Splendid Fiins to create these calendar toppers!

Credits:

Classic Album 8x11 by Splendid Fiins

Eclectic Mix Paper Pack by Splendid Fiins

(Faux)laroids by Splendid Fiins

Various other items by Splendid Fiins

Birthday Party Invitations & Thank You Cards (Can I call these hybrid - kind of?)

Last night my daughter had a birthday party/sleepover with a bunch of her girlfriends. They had a great time! I heard lots of giggling and chatting. Last Sunday I created the invitations for my daughter to hand out on Monday and then this morning I put together a thank you note, using photos from last night's party, for my daughter to give to her friends at school on Monday.

I made both of the cards as 5x7s so I could print them easily at Costco. I matted the invitations on brightly colored cardstock (left over from my paper scrapping days!). When I get the thank you photos back from Costco tomorrow morning I'm going to attach them to the front of a 5x7 card and my daughter can write her thank you on the inside of the card. 

Knowing I wanted to include a group and individual photos on the card (and just because I of course wanted those photos), I took a photo of my daughter with each of her friends at the party last night. Each girl will get a personalized thank you note with a photo of them and my daughter.

Here's the thank you note:

And I shared this last week already, but here is the thank you note we sent out:

Credits for the thank you note:

Made of Awesome (frame) by Gennifer Bursett

Chalkboard Journal Cards (living life to the fullest) by Karen Funk

About a Boy papers by Mye De Leon; 

Remarkable (click/photo rubon) by Karla Dudley

Kinda Sketchy template by Splendid Fiins

Eclectic Mix paper pack by Splendid Fiins

Tween Add On (file label) by Splendid Fiins

Flea Market brads (camera brad) by Splendid Fiins

Occasions (Thank U) by Shabby Princess

Credits for the invitation:

Made of Awesome paper pack (chalkboard paper) by Gennifer Bursett

Chalkboard Elements by Sweet Caroline Studio

Minnesota 4H State Horse Show (a framed print)

My niece took part in the Minnesota 4H state horse show a couple of weeks ago and I got to watch her compete. It was awesome. She worked so hard to get to this point. I was so impressed with her hard work and dedication! She's one great kid!

When I got home after the event and looked at the photos I'd taken, I saw some adorable ones of Rach and her horse Jack. I decided I really wanted to create a page for her to hang on her wall to commemorate her accomplishments. I surprised her with it when she was at our house this weekend. She loved it! It's fun to give just-because gifts!

Credits:

Burlap Essentials Paper Pack by Katie Pertiet

Collaged Edges Paper by Jessica Sprague

Chalkboard Birthday Invitation

My daughter is going to be celebrating her birthday with her friends this coming weekend. We're kinda of last minute on this event and tomorrow she's giving invitations to her friends. (Yup, the party is Friday and she's giving out invitations on Monday so we really are pushing it! I know!) So, with time being a bit of an issue, when I woke up this morning I put together an 5x7 invitation that I've sent off to print at Costco. I decided to go with the ever popular chalkboard style. She's excited about her invite so I guess I did OK!

Credits:

Made of Awesome paper pack (chalkboard paper) by Gennifer Bursett

Chalkboard Elements by Sweet Caroline Studio

Believe it or not, this digi girl made a hybrid project (a composition notebook)

Believe it or not, this 100% digi girl made a hybrid project. I know. Weird, huh? I keep seeing such great hybrid projects in the galleries and on Pinterest that I thought I'd give it a try. I made something simple ... a composition notebook. It was kinda fun, although it did require me to do a lot of sifting through my old paper scrapping supplies for Xyron tape and pop dots! What do you think? Does it make you other digi crafters want to give hybrid a try? Short of the tape and pop dots I used all digi supplies. The only other issue for me was that my printer doesn't print, so my fix was to print at Costco on photo paper. I didn't know how photo paper would work but it was just fine!

Here's my attempt at taking a decent photo of the finished product:

Here's a digi version so you can see colors more realistically:

Credits (all Pixels & Co.):

Kraft Essentials (grey paper); Lacies Vol. 1; Stamp Presss Photo brushes; Sup? papers, Sup? elements & Sup? add on pack 2; Right Now elements | by Karla Dudley

Photography Photo Set 2 (photography wordart) by Jennifer Valencia

Mousepad Gifts (Does this count as hybrid?)

I wanted to share with you a couple of mousepad gifts I made for my mom and for my mother-in-law and father-in-law. I thought they'd be fun "little somethings" to share with them.

If you're interested in creating a mouse pad, I had mine printed at Costco. They have a full page template design option for you scrappers (or for someone who wants to include a full size photo for their mousepad.)

Helpful tip if you design a mousepad at Costco ... They indicate that their mousepads are 8-1/4" x 9-1/8" inch. That size did not work for me. Through a little trial and error (this time I was smart and did my trial and error to determine size BEFORE I designed the entire thing! ... I guess you CAN teach an old dog new tricks. LOL!) The size that worked for me was 7.5" tall x 9.127" wide. (See below.)

NOTE ... the images above are what showed on the preview screen at Costco. When I got the mouse pads back they were trimmed significantly smaller than this. (Maybe this wouldn't have happened if I'd have kept the exact size they gave ... I'm not sure though because the Costco previews were the images I posted above.) While I'm really happy with the quality of the images on the mouse pad I'm a bit disappointed that the sides were cropped off so much. If I make a mousepad again I would definitely leave a LOT more room around the edges. (For my images on the left and the right, the images were croppped right up to the frames and the top and bottom were also cropped right up the frame.

Credits:

Vintage Findings paper pack | Jen Alysson
Photo Frames & Staples | Katie Pertiet
Moments of Special (celebrate happiness) | Vinnie Pearce
Stamped Brushes (family) | Carina Gardner

Hybrid Project - Christmas Card Book

I thought I'd share with you a hybrid project I created the other day. It's a "book" I created to store my Christmas cards. I'm posting this kind of late (it's Valentines Day after all!), but better late than never right?! I like to keep the Christmas cards we get every year (particularly the photo cards), but I always used to struggle with what to do with them so I can actually look at the pictures. I used to keep the photos in a folder in a drawer but that was really fairly pointless. I never looked at the pictures. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Then I saw something like this on Pinterest last year. (I created a book last year too) and decided this was the perfect solution to my picture card dilemma!

This is such an easy project to create! All I had to do was design a cover in Photoshop (I used a bracket shape) and then I printed it at Costco. I cut out the bracket shape page and adhered it to cardboard. (I used the cardboard I get when I print pictures/scrapbook pages at Costco. The cardboard they send with scrapbook pages is so useful for lots of stuff!). After that I just used another piece of cardboard to make a "template" of sorts for punching holes for the binder rings so I could keep the holes consistently spaced, and I used that template to punch the holes in the cover, photos, photo cards and envelope (that I used to house the Christmas letters we received).

Easy peasy, right?

Credits:

Heart of the Holidays kit by Karla Dudley
Vintage Christmas kit by Mye de Leon
Jumbo Number Cards by Karla Dudley
Artisan Label Templates by Crystal Wilkerson (the bracket shape)
Mixed Stamp Titles No. 2 by Katie Pertiet